Type Bee

11 August 2009

Mood: buzzy!

I am a Type Bee and here’s why. I was born with the initial B, I type a lot, I’m a laid-back Californian, and I’ve metamorphosed into a Honeybee. As you read my weekly column, you will most likely turn into a Honeybee as well, if you aren’t one already.

Blogger or Buzzer

Although I’m not a natural-born blogger, here goes my first blog column. It’s not that I’m the mousy type—let’s just say I’m comfortable with cats. I enjoy curling up, stretching out, relaxing, preening, minding my own business. The Typepad blog I started was starved for my attention. Then, all of a sudden in January 2008 I discovered that I’m a natural-born buzz-er. It’s quite easy to talk up a storm about a great book, an innovative web design, and…David Archuleta! From the moment I heard David’s golden, honey-toned voice, I have talked about him, listened to him, attended several concerts, I’ve even flown to see his hometown of Murray, Utah. And, I’ve learned to blog just so that I can buzz.

The word ‘buzz’ has been foremost in my mind lately. I’m ‘DA Buzz Type,’ the type of person who won’t stop until everyone I know knows what I know about David Archuleta. Not so long ago the only folks who were likely to hear me were my family, friends, neighbors, and townspeople. The Internet has changed the concept of buzz forever. Now I—you—they—we can all buzz. Collectively, we create a buzzing cacophony, nay, a beautiful symphony for and about David Archuleta. It’s a simple formula that works almost effortlessly because it springs forth out of sheer joy. For all you literal-minded folks, there really is a formula and here it is.

Royal Premium Honey

For more than 1½ years I have been using both mouth and mouse to buzz about David Archuleta. Though I am old enough to remember typewriters, trust me, I’m not using a Royal typewriter to type my sweet buzz. It’s called a keyboard now,—eek! there’s a mouse here too. What is produced is Royal Premium Honey! The buzzing reached a peak last summer on the Hey! Nielsen website, the first hive for the DA Honeybees. David Archuleta fans were more than 400 members strong on Hey! Nielsen. We created lots of buzz and kept David No.1 in Music for many months, far ahead of more than 2,000 musicians! Last October on my trip to Salt Lake City, I gave an informal marketing presentation to Team David members. One of the slides is this beehive image representing all the Honeybees who were on my H!N message board. You’ll probably find your username here, because many of you have re-created the Honeybee Hive here at DA Buzzing dot org, or DAHoneybees.com, if you prefer. haha!

DA Honeybees 2.0

The dynamic Internet known as Web 2.0 provides interactivity between producer (David) and consumer (fans), and also among those groups, with social networks, blogs, wikis, and media sharing sites. We fans of David are connected to him, his producers, his band, and to one another through the mechanisms provided online. You can “find me, follow me, and friend me” all from the comfort of your couch. The buzz we create is expressed exponentially: buzz100000 every time we buzz.

Many of us fans of David have been experiencing a steep learning curve. Before David (B.D.), we did not have Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube accounts. We had never “tweetered” in public if we could help it. We had not fed at the trough of an RSS feed. We chatted on the telephone, not with a keyboard.

Today we David Archuleta fans are guerrilla marketers. The tools we use are time, energy, and imagination. Like a well-formed beehive, we do our “BUZZness” to the best of our abilities with grace and generosity of spirit. Our aim is to tell the world about this rising star. Our methods may be simple but they are highly effective. Email is a good example. With every email message, we help to broaden the audience for David’s music.

3 Easy Ideas for Email Buzz:

send a monthly DA newsletter to email contacts

create a DA email signature with links to his official website, a favorite David quote or song, a link to your DA Buzzing author page

Buzz Song

Remember I told you that the word ‘buzz’ is in my head a lot? ‘Buzz’ is an onomatopoeia, so I Googled that too and found out that Todd Rundgren wrote a funny song called “Onomatopoeia”. Here’s a snippet.

4 responses so far ↓

Mother Bee has given us the buzz challenge and with her excellent guidance we should have no problems following her lead. Buzzing around and for David is our primary objective! Thanks Minna for the wonderful and insightful look into the effectiveness of the Buzz David’s fans can create!

I enjoyed your post, minja. B’s the start of sweet buzzing. All the buzzing about bees’ business for David makes me want to shout at the honeytops: “There’s no business like D-business – like no business I know!”